Every business needs a single purpose

It was a sunny day in London back in 2004 when I had my first experience of meeting a senior partner of a famous publishing house.  The joy of journeying to London from The Midlands on a summers' day in England was soon forgotten when I received the harsh feedback from someone who should know a think or two about writing books.  She said, "Ian, you're going to be a great writer someday BUT NOT WITH THIS BOOK."

I had apparently made the cardinal mistake of trying to bung too much into one book.  As my expert witness advised, any book should have a beginning, a middle and an end–and more than anything else, ONE STORY.

Sticking to ONE STORY works well in business.  No brand can keep its focus and clarity of purpose when it dilutes its efforts into many different threads of activity across many disciplines, creating more than one story.

All of that sounds pretty easy to manage, but it's not.  

As businesses grow, they stretch their reach to win revenue in various places.  They find new product lines to sell, services to add.  Before you know it, your management team is wondering what the brand story is.

Staff, buyers and investors like clarity

People like it when they don't have to work too hard to understand what your business does and how it brings value.  The longer it takes to explain your business and what it does, the less time you have to bring value to your audience.

If you want to get the most out of your people, sell more and win more finance, you need to get to the root of WHY your business exists–and use that knowledge to steer decisions.  

Coming up with that singular purpose that defines your business isn't that easy, particularly when attempting to retrofit it into a mature business.  That's why I've penned my new book–The Root of Your Why.  It helps entrepreneurs frame their purpose and achieve more, in less time.  Because, the stronger the root, the larger your tree can grow and the longer it can last.